No more sleeping late for us! It's back to school time!
...I promise I'll only go in up to my ankles!
Where have we all heard that before?
It was such a gorgeous day to day, that we took off to the beach for a late lunch and to stroll along the water. Did not anticipate going in, as it was a tad too cold for the natives.
Tourists, though, abounded. It was a picture perfect day. Hardly any waves to speak of, the water was crystal clear, not a cloud in the sky, and there was hardly any sea weed in sight.
T had a ball. 
an exact reinactment of T's school performance.... no need to scroll to the end and pause the music that's been playing for years. I've finally put an end to that. Finally, a blog you can sneak at work without risk!
Once again, it was a very Barbie christmas around here...with a few other fun things thrown in.
A new, hot game is bey blades. Basically, they are glorified spinning tops, a game that's been around for over 200 years. While marketed to the boys, girls would enjoy them too.
"They" claim that adoptive parents, especially older ones, tend to over-indulge their kids (i.e. spoil their kids rotten) by buying too many toys. Hmm, I'm not proof of that phenomenon, am I? Surely not!
The last photo is T in her new nightie, courtesy of great Aunt Connie. Fits perfectly!
Dot, T, and I did meals on wheels again, and delivered xmas dinner to my parents and our Aunt. It was like 3 christmas's in one day! While at my parents house (who have sidewalks), T took off on her bike to ride around the block, with her old mom huffing and puffing after her. Literally, the kid can FLY on that thing.
Of all the presents, T announces that her favorite toy is her Barbie horse and carriage.
We were pretty much dancing on tables, fooling around with hoola hoops, and otherwise spreading christmas cheer.
Not much happening around here. Its just plain quiet. the reason for that is b/c aunt dot took T off to Disney on Sunday. They are there through Wednesday.
The house is quiet.
The house is neat.
I get to watch what I want on TV
I get to blast my music.
I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.
Reports from disney are that they are having a ball.
I've been doing some christmas shopping and wrapping, all without a little curious person sticking her nose in anything.
Taylor's Christmas Show was this morning. Directly after announcements the whole school filed outside to the basketball courts to see the show. The show lasted all of about 10 minutes, and as far as I'm concerned, basically starred Taylor.
I'm not kidding!
This first picture shows the three french hens. only the first and 6th graders participated. The rest of the school and interested parents got to watch.
This second picture shows the 3 french hens, the 2 turtle doves, the partridge and the pear tree. Each time in the song that they said their name, the kids would step forward and do a little dance.
Four boys were the five golden rings. All from the first grade. They were all dressed up in suits and ties. Everytime it was their turn, they would step forward, go down on one knee, and offer up their golden ring. Too cute for words.
The reason I say the show starred Taylor, is that the first thing that happened was she was put on the microphone between the 8 maids a milking and the 7 swans a swimming, and proceeded to read St. Anthony's Charity prayer. Out loud and with lots of feeling.
The show then commenced, and then they had her do the prayer again to close the show. Both times is was so surprised, that I didn't get to film the whole thing. I'll post portions of the show when I can upload them to utube.
At the end of the show, T walked off away from all the kids and her class with the principal, headed toward the main building of the school. T reports she went to the office, so that she could recite the prayer to all the ladies in the office.
That's my girl...first grade and already kissing up to the principal. and with no urging from mom either! Its just innate!
What a fun morning!
Saturday was the annual breakfast with Santa at T's school. It also includes a DJ blasting fun holiday songs, Santa driven in on a Firetruck by hot firemen and paramedics, and the big hit....snow.
This year they got smart, and had two big mounds of snow for the kids to play in. Here's a few pictures of T whooping it up in the snow. Of course, it all degenerated into a big snowball fight that went on for about an hour or two, until finally someone tried to put a stop to it. Unsuccessfully.
If you look closely, you might spot T's love Daniel. Who can guess which one he is?
On the homefront, my mom has bounced back fabulously with my dad home. Its truly a miracle. She is off crisis care and back to her old self. Still a sick lady, but better.
Knock on wood, buy my dad is basically cooperating at the moment. Taking his meds, and has not tried to go out driving (I have his keys). But he hasn't even tried. So far, so good.
Tomorrow, T has a field trip with her school. They are all going by schoolbus to see the play Annie. She is very excited. While she went on field trips with summer camp, this is her firstschool event.
We then have a girl scout meeting tomorrow evening. I've cleaned out my cabinets of canned food to donate to the poor. We'll get a patch for that!
T has chosen to be one of the three french hens in her school xmas play.
Thank god for amazon, is all I have to say.
It all came tonight, and fits perfectly!
Nothing like having you dad in a nursing home right in the heart of South Beach, literally 1 block from the beach. When we arrived to take him home, they wanted another few hours to get him showered and dressed. So, we walked over to the beach and had a delish lunch at Nikki Beach. Also had a delish Mojito.
T had a fab time at the beach. We walked out to it. It was really a bit too cool for the beach, but some die hard tourists were laying out. The beach itself was quite rough and surfers abounded. T had a blast running along the shoreline, chasing the water as it receded and letting it chase her as it rolled up on the beach. She particularly like the "sudsy" water.
We observed a few jellyfish lingering in the seaweed, and she got to finally see one in real life.
We got my dad home without incident. So far.
We shall see what the future holds.
Meanwhile, my mom is doing OK, and may actually be discharged from the 24 hour crisis care on Monday if she continues to eat and drink as she was doing yesterday and today.
I'm exhausted and off to bed. Night all!
Well, Icolene returned from 2 days off, and demanded we get dad home. She says mom is less responsive every day. I do note that whenever I have been there the past few days, she has been asleep. Might wake up for a bit, then back to sleep.
So, I went over the the nursing home to begin discharge proceedings. I'll pick him up at the end of the day. We shall see how this all goes. I don't have high hopes at all for him to be able to deal with this and the aides in the house. So, we probably won't be able to go to the basket extravaganza at t's school this evening, as we will be dealing with him.
On an upnote, the parent teacher conference we extremely well. I have often thought T is extremely smart. But then, all parents think their kids are brilliant. That's how it should be. But even given that, I've thought she was particularly smart. Well, the teach confirmed it. So nice to get validation from an unbiased 3rd party!
T is excelling in all areas in school. The kids like the valadictorian of her class, if first grade had such a thing. I'm thrilled and thank god that T's studies is one area of my life that I don't have to worry. If I had to do all kinds of reviews with her at night, I think you'd have to put me in a looney bin, too.
So that's it. Plumber coming this morning, so I will be broke by the afternoon.
